The aim of Part II is to develop, at least in a first outline, an analysis of the construction of sociology within the context of the discourse of modernity.

The discourse of modernity emerged in the sixteenth century against the background of the breakdown of the medieval feudal order and the religious-metaphysical worldview. It was a response to the failure of the understanding of reality taken for granted until then to provide a shared stock of cultural and social assumptions on the basis of which people could orient themselves and justify their activities. The discourse addressed the general problem of the loss of common foundations and the need to come to terms with the new historical situation that emerged as a consequence. At issue in it were matters such as moral action and social bonds and the need on the part of the people of the time to organise their own lives and relations in a conscious way. The appearance of the discourse of modernity coincided with the emergence of reflexivity, with the growing awareness that, far from being fixed beforehand as unchangeable, all the constituent elements of social relations and their organisation could be different and indeed are open to challenge. All the constituent elements of society are related to one another in and through communication, and by way of discourse any of these components could be thematised and even be problematised with a view to changing it. Rather than problematising everything all at once, however, the discourse of modernity since this reflexive turn provided the context for addressing the general problem of how society could be constituted and how its different elements or dimensions could be brought into relation with one another, be rendered mutually compatible, reconciled and consolidated so as to form a discursively justifiable societal arrangement.